Weekly post number 3!!! Lots of new features added this week and plenty of bug cleaning as well. Overall, the feature additions and changes are coming along quite smoothly. You can download a copy of the project form this week’s development v0.0.23 for windows. Lots of things to talk about for this week so let’s hop right in.

Change List

Here is the list of changes added to the project since last week:

  • v0.0.18 - Fixed jittery fan movement.
  • v0.0.19 - Adjusted settings to have players move with ground much more smoothly.
  • v0.0.20 - Added a basic game mode for Hex-A-Gone.
  • v0.0.21 - Added a character select screen (featuring Sam’s help to code this one).
  • v0.0.22 - Added a basic menu to select between levels.
  • v0.0.23 - Fixed a few broken features, settings, and variables in the game.

Feature Highlight - Hex-A-Gone

Layered maps of hexagon grids for the new game mode, Hex-A-Gone

The feature highlight this week is the new level, Hex-A-Gone. This level is inspired from Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout Hex-A-Gone round. The map is split up into layers of hexagons which will disappear when a player steps on them. When you fall through the final layer, you’re out of the round. The last player standing wins!

This also encouraged me to add a feature for selecting different levels within the game. That way, players can select from the previously-developed level (Big-Fans) and the new level (Hex-A-Gon). Hopefully I’ll be able to add more fun maps over the next few weeks.

Future Post - Hex-a-Gons are the Best-a-Gons

Animation of hexagons being placed radially around a central point

Making the code to create a grid of hexagons for the Hex-A-Gone game was very interesting and I’ve noticed some interest in the tile maps from posts on Reddit this week. Since there is some interest,I’ll be cleaning up this code and making a sample project similar to the Recolor Shader post from last week. Will be working on a fun short video and update post for the future for the tile map code!

Future Plans

Crossed quite a few things off the list of things to do. These are a few of the times item’s we’ve achieved since last week.

  • Character select screen in main menu
  • Level select screen for host
    • Also, more level besides just big fans

Not sure which tasks will be prioritized right away, but these are the current plans for the game:

  • End a round once all players have finished (instead of waiting for timeout)
  • Score screen to show player scores at the end of round
  • Improvement to character controller
    • Knocking the character prone/rag-doll
    • Slippery ground to slide across
    • Bouncy surfaces and objects to jump off
    • Always more debugging…

Can’t wait to get started on those next features.

I’m making blog pots along with my friend Jorden, check out his writing blog at https://dennyjk.wordpress.com/blog/ or his most recent post on The Four Horsemen (the post will be live at 1pm Eastern Time on 08-28-21).

Have a great week

- Nick Maltbie